Sies, Mboweni!
South Africans have learned with great shock of the 28% hike in Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s salary. This is the public servant who always tells us to tighten our belts, yet his belt is hugely loosened. Sies!
South African citizens must be very angry at being instructed that it is not economically viable for the state to give a 12% increment as demanded by public service employees. Politicians and senior government technocrats come out guns blazing to oppose the real demands of ordinary workers by claiming that the demands are unreasonable and therefore impracticable. Shortly after making such pronouncements, these fat-cat bureaucrats amplify their own salaries by alarming margins.
Mboweni and his big-bellied buffoons in the Reserve Bank are currently earning millions of rands. Their children are receiving high-quality education in private schools and universities. In most instances their children have been posted outside the country to European and American universities to acquire a different education from what children from poor families receive in South Africa.
These practices are deplorable. They perpetuate huge class divisions. The shocking poverty in working-class communities such as Ramaphosaville, Mshenguville, Alexandra, Azapo, the Cape Flats, certain areas of Soweto and a plethora of other places is enough evidence that the so-called miracle of 1994 left millions in the lurch.
Mboweni and his monetary committee are guilty of causing the deaths of thousands of people as a result of poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
We do not need the headache called Tito Mboweni in the Zuma administration. We have capable economic and financial gurus who are genuinely sympathetic to the plight of the poor. — Benzi Ka-Soko, Auckland Park
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No amount of argument can justify the wealth of the country disappearing into the pockets of a few, especially when there are so many still waiting for the promises on which they pinned their votes to materialise.
The country should be run by selfless people who would be more than eager to have their salaries capped at between R10 000 and R50 000 a month, depending on their position, with reasonable allowances for extraordinary expenditures in the line of duty. (These caps and allowances should have already been formulated by the ANC, as a freedom movement, before it took over the country.)
Those who desire more should then look to the private sector. Those who stay on would be those who truly love South Africa and are committed to service delivery and the best interests of the country.
The ANC could have achieved this in fewer than the 14 years it has ruled. It has failed. Miserably.
The only guarantee we can expect from Mboweni is his ever-present Machiavellian smirk. — Mahmood, North Beach, Durban
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The Democratic Alliance’s support for Mboweni’s massive pay increase shows that the opposition party is completely out of touch with the abject poverty of the people of South Africa. Their finance spokesperson, Dion George, gives the preposterous reason for its support as being that ”there is only one Reserve Bank governor”.
There is only one Eskom CEO, but does that mean he deserves a similar massive salary increase at this time?
A more likely reason for the DA’s support is that with a general election just months away the DA is currently leading the pack appealing to President Thabo Mbeki for similar massive increases to their own salaries, perks and pensions. Hence the DA would be hypocritical to criticise Mboweni’s increase. — Frank Hartry, Kingsburgh
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I read Nosimilo Ndlovu’s article with interest and maybe just a little shock. While I respect the diverse and rich cultures of the South African people, I support King Zwelithini’s rather belated call for maidens to cover up during the annual reed dance.
Surely showing off your genitals to the king (and the other men and women around at the time) and allowing yourself to be ”examined” in public to prove your virginity cannot be comfortable for the maidens, to say the least? I wonder how many of them would be eager to do the reed dance if they really had a choice? Very few, I suspect. And what happens after the dance? I don’t know, but according to the latest statistics the highest prevalence of HIV/Aids in South Africa is in KwaZulu-Natal. — Leon Rademeyer, Pretoria
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Conspiracy must be tested in court
Zwelinzima Vavi’s somersault on the independence and integrity of the judiciary should be cautiously welcomed. It took Kgalema Motlanthe’s brave defence of the judges to stand against the onslaught from Vavi, Fikile Mbalula, Blade Nzimande and the ever-erratic Julius Malema.
If our movement says we must discuss the case of our president, Jacob Zuma, what about the cases of Jackie Selebi, Robert McBride, the Mangaung councillors, the Travelgate MPs and the Boeremag?
Some have already made the judgement that the case is about the persecution of Zuma. President Thabo Mbeki is viewed by Malema and Buti Manamela as the chief conspirator. This political conspiracy has to be tested in court, so that if Mbeki did conspire against Zuma the ANC’s national disciplinary committee can summon him to face such a serious charge. — Phillip Mhlongo, Newlands West
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Perhaps the most overlooked dimension of the debate about the intimidation tactics of the ANC’s left wing in the Zuma bribe case is the fact that Zuma himself is a virtual prisoner of his own radical followers. He is a hostage of the lofty expectations of Cosatu, the ANC Youth League and go-along student organisations such as Cosas.
The likes of Malema and Vavi are relishing the chance to usher Zuma into government and take control of the machinery of kids- and cousin-based shady BEE deals and state tenders.
Cosatu and the SACP are nothing more than noise-making populist attention-seekers and capital-goods-loving leftists. If they get their way next year and the line between Luthuli House and the Union Buildings vanishes, they will start demanding that Zuma be a president in their own image. They are the kite-masters or the flute-holders and Msholozi is just swinging and dancing to their demands. — Ray Mwareya
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The Zuma populists are purging capable leaders out of politics. Are we heading for yet another five years of non-delivery?
I’m convinced that populists in our country are a minority, just like criminals. But this minority seems to be in control. Our country’s fate appears to lie with Vavi, Nzimande and Malema. Why do we allow them to take control and threaten us when they don’t get what they want?
I miss the leadership of Nelson Mandela. He had the courage to speak out against populist tendencies and ill-discipline within the party. — Thabile Mange
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If the philosophy that ”justice delayed is justice denied” holds universally, then South Africa is being denied justice for the sake of political expedience. A political battle in some corner is no cause for the country to be held to ransom. President-in-waiting Zuma should take his ”day in court” and thus affirm the credibility and independence of our justice system. Let sanity prevail, lest we be seen as another banana republic in the making. — Sekgopha Mako, Arcon Park
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Last week there were lots of ANC sound bites saying they want charges against Zuma dropped, but also that they respect institutions such as the courts and the Constitution. How do these two statements go together? — Theo Martinez, Blairgowrie
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Film critique short-sighted
Andile Mngxitama’s comment piece on The Choir, shown during the recent TriContinental Film Festival (”The basest patronage”, Friday, August 29) is unfair.
He attacks filmmaker Michael Davie for presenting ”the vilest of colonial anti-black representation”. That ”black suffering” referred to the convicts at Leeuwkop Prison. Excuse me, since when are common-law prisoners (we’re not talking political prisoners during apartheid here!) representative of black suffering?
Davie didn’t start off making this documentary; he was working on another project. The initial incidents in The Choir were happening as he was filming. He didn’t suggest they be made to happen. The Leeuwkop prison choir wasn’t his idea. The choir competition is a fact, as are the preparations, the excitement and the joy of reprieve, albeit temporary.
How is the filmmaker responsible for locking ”these wretched men into cycles of gang violence, drugs and rape”? What is wrong with hoping ”for their rehabilitation”? I applauded the fact that these men (who had obviously slipped up somewhere, somehow) had made the choice to turn their lives around. I left the cinema thinking: if only more of our prisons had such uplifting programmes.
It is also impossible to see how the filmmaker can be criticised for making this film and not one about ”the privileged — predominantly white” portion of the population that, he says, ”produces the suffering, 80%, which is black”.
I fail to see how the film is responsible for ”blaming and vilifying the victim”. I saw but one victim and that was the rape victim, a woman, who came to address the prisoners on the effects of rape (and was blamed by some of them — at first). The only others who could be said to be victims are the children of men in prison — but that is another film.
Condemning such a brilliant film is, sadly, short-sighted and unfair. But, as amaXhosa say, ”Amehlo akaphakelani” — seeing eye to eye is, indeed, rarely possible. — Sindiwe Magona
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Numsa resources not up for grabs
Matumo Letsoalo’s story ”Zuma-ites grab union” (August 15) covers the Ceppwawu congress, and the forthcoming Numsa congress is mentioned. Cosatu is also brought into the picture — it is alleged that Cosatu wants general secretary contender Silumko Nondwangu out because it wants Numsa resources, or so says an anonymous source.
As a leader of Numsa I think I need to put on record the fact that Numsa pays subscriptions to Cosatu religiously and also pays all other monies as agreed upon in the Cosatu central executive committee. To my knowledge there is no requirement to allow Cosatu to access union resources other than those required by Cosatu as per the deliberations of all affiliates of Cosatu, including Numsa.
As for the faceless Numsa leader who is quoted to infer that Cosatu wants to access Numsa resources — is this not the same comrade who has said no one can determine the leadership of Numsa, even Cosatu? Is this the individual who gave out telephone numbers to Letsoalo? Is this not the same leader who told City Press that Cosatu leaders are angry that Irvin Jim is not supported by his region, Eastern Cape, when that matter was not even discussed in the Eastern Cape congress at the time? — Cedric Gina, second vice-president, Numsa
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Marital woes
The South African Communist Party only pretends to believe in democracy and the rule of law. It is trying to take over the ANC without firing a shot.
In 1917 the Communist Party was able to take over Russia because of the chaos at that time. When the SACP takes over government it will ban Cosatu and change the judiciary to fit its goals. Communist parties all over the world, when they took over government, banned labour unions. The marriage between the SACP and Cosatu is a marriage made in hell and will not last long. — Mike Trap
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In brief
Morgan Tsvangirai has clarified the sticking point in the Zim negotiations: it is the enormous power vested in the presidency. The president can override the decisions of the rest of the government. If that is the issue, the two parties should iron out a new constitution and then hold elections under that constitution if they can’t agree on power-sharing. — Elise Vanda
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Let’s have an objective piece on Zim. On the BBC Tsvangirai called on South Africa to cut electricity to Zim. Is that a man of the people? — Name withheld
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An ad in the M&G says ”Buy Proudly South African”. The textual content is impossible to understand: ”— which shares my progressive vision of facilitating — the only ethical and morally defensible recourse…” Blah blah blah. Could the advertiser consider using common, everyday English so that the reader is inspired to feel proudly South African? — Gerrie Steyn, Observatory
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John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin (September 5), is a deeply religious, right-wing, anti-abortion, rifle-toting, moose-killing, dog-killing hockey mom. Just what we need in these perilous times … Pistol Packin’ Palin and the 2 000-Year-Old Man! — Herb Stark
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As an artist I benefited from Brett Kebble’s generous exhibitions. I wish to compliment John McCann for his cover graphic of Kebble (September 5) in the paint-by-numbers style. — Beverley Price, Johannesburg